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The gourmet chocolate treats you love from Ava Marie Chocolates take quite the journey before they’re ready to enjoy. Here’s a step-by-step look at how chocolate is made—from cacao pod to the delicious creations you can find in our Peterborough, New Hampshire store or order nationwide.
Harvesting and Fermentation
Chocolate begins with cacao pods, which grow on cacao trees and are typically harvested twice a year. This is a hands-on process, as the pods must be carefully cut from the tree. Each cacao pod holds 20-60 beans, nestled within a layer of sweet, creamy white pulp.
After being harvested, the beans are fermented for several days to enrich their flavor, marking the first step in turning raw cacao into chocolate.
Processing
Once fermented, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted to enhance their rich aroma and taste. The roasted beans are cracked open, and their shells are removed, leaving the nibs, which are the edible core of the beans. These nibs are then ground into a thick, smooth paste called chocolate liquor.
Refining and Conching
Chocolate liquor is refined for a velvety texture and then conched, a method of kneading and aerating to enhance its flavor and smoothness. During this step, ingredients like sugar, milk, and cocoa butter are added, depending on whether the chocolate will be dark, milk, or white.
Tempering and Molding
At Ava Marie Chocolates, we take the finished chocolate and craft it into our signature gourmet treats. The chocolate is carefully tempered, a process of heating and cooling to achieve a smooth texture and a shiny, polished finish. Then it’s poured into molds to create chocolate bars, truffles, caramels, toffee, and more.
The result is premium chocolate you can enjoy in our store or have shipped anywhere in the USA.
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